History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of AmericaTiffany, John K. (John Kerr)
History
History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America
Tiffany, John K. (John Kerr)
Postage stamps -- United States
FOUR CENTS. Bust of Andrew Jackson, in profile to left, after Powers,
in an oval disk, horizontally lined, very closely at the top, and doubly
diagonally bordered by a colorless line, twice as wide as that in the
last two cents, surrounded by a solid colored band, ornamented with
pearls below, and broadened above into a label, bordered above and at
the ends by a colorless line, and inscribed "_United States Postage_,"
just as in the two cents, the whole resting on a rectangular tablet,
with horizontally lined ground, crossed by vertical lines below the
oval, and bordered by a vertical colorless line on the right and above
the oval on the left, with mitered or bevelled edge, represented by five
colored lines parallel with the top, bottom and sides, the right, upper
third of the left, and bottom bevel crossed by short colored lines at
right angles. On the ground below the oval, which is nearly solid color,
in colorless capitals, "_Four Cents_," between colored five pointed
stars. Large colorless numeral "4" on each side, above the stars and end
letters of the value.
Plate impression, 19½ by 25 mm., in color, on white paper, slightly
surfaced with green, perforated 12.
4 cents, blue green.
The arrangement of the plates, printer's imprint, plate number, etc., is
the same as before, for both of the new stamps.
The report of 1883 also proposed that the 3 and 6 cent stamps should be
called in, redeemed and destroyed. Nothing seems to have been done about
it however, until Frank Hatton, Postmaster General, issued an order,
dated December 1st, 1884, that the three and six cents of all issues
with the exceptions following, should be exchanged by postmasters for
other values.
"Especial care must be taken not to redeem postage stamps issued
prior to 1861, as such stamps were long since declared obsolete
and valueless for postage. No six cent stamps were issued prior
to 1861. The three cent issued before that time bears the head
of Washington, and is printed in red. In a straight line at the
top are the words "U. S. Postage," and at the bottom, the words
"Three Cents." The figure 3 does not appear on the stamps, as it
does upon all subsequent issues of that denomination. Stamps
answering to this description, must in all cases be refused."
On the 14th of January, 1885, Postmaster General Frank Hatton, by order
No. 75, appointed a committee of three to proceed among other things to
the stamp manufactory at New York, and effectually cancel all the
plates, except one working plate of each denomination, of the issues of
1847, of 1851, including the two carrier stamps, of 1861, of 1865
newspaper and periodicals, of 1869, of the 3, 5, Taylor, 7, 12 and 24
cents of 1870, 3 and 9 cent newspaper and periodical of 1874, and of all
the Department stamps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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